A Brief and Remarkable Narrative of the Life and Extreme Sufferings of Barnabas Downs, Jun

9781465683236

213 pages

Library of Alexandria

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I was born in Barnſtable, in New England, October 2, 1757, of credible Parents, whom I ſerved as an obedient Son, I hope, until the commencement of the late war called me from my home, and led me to exchange the occupation of a Huſbandman, to which I was bred for the more dangerous employment of a Soldier. In this capacity I served my Country 3 campaigns, and know not that my behaviour was censured by my officers. After having returned for a time to the Farming Buſineſs, I concluded to try my fortune at ſea: I entered accordingly on board the ſchooner Bunker Hill, Captain Iſaac Cobb, Commander, on a privateering voyage: But we had not been out more than 6 days before we were taken by the brig Hope, one Brown, Commander, and carried into Halifax. We were committed to jail and kept very ſhort: Then I was taken with the ſmall pox, thro’ which GOD ſafely carried me when deſtitute of the neceſſaries of life, and under great preſſure of mind. But after my being recovered ſo far as to be returned to the jail from the hoſpital, in conſequence of my having nothing but a ſmall allowance of ſalt proviſions, which were next to poiſon for a ſick perſon, I was taken with a violent fever, which returned me again to the hoſpital, and brought me to the gates of the grave. No perſon who hath not experienced it can imagine how gloomy and diſtreſſing it is to be under ſuch circumſtances: To be far diſtant from our deareſt Friends; to be among perſons who are not only without any concern for us, or intereſt in our fate, but who are our profeſſed enemies, and not governed even by the common principles of humanity, is a caſe truly melancholy. In this ſituation I was attacked with a bleeding of the noſe, (to which I had before been ſubject) which brought me to the very borders of eternity! After this I was, by the ſmiles of heaven recovered and reſtored, by a cartel, with 400 of my Countrymen to our own homes. How welcome they were to us, and how pleaſant it was to me to ſee the faces of my Friends again, any one may imagine more eaſily than I can deſcribe!